for president obama. ben, thank you very much for coming on. why do we have those concentric layers of hallways at the pentagon full of people walking briskly with stars on their shoulders? why all the hallways at the state department, the horn-rimmed glasses crowd walking just as briskly with their briefcases? the nsc in the west wing. if all of that rigor and expertise can be cast aside by one guy over the phone that has now done this to a u.s. ally and, as richard engel said tonight, the map of the middle east is being redrawn on the fly? >> that's precisely the question, brian. i think it's important to note that this is kind of unprecedented in the history of american foreign policy. president trump has had an impulse to do this, to withdraw support for the kurds, but he's been stopped in the past because none of his advisers would go along with that plan. so what he did here is he short circuited any process. having been in the white house for eight years, any decision